About the Department of Anthropology

2008 Visiting Lecture Series

35th ANNUAL VISITING LECTURE SERIES

“Communities in Crisis”

Anthropology is nicely situated and well equipped to help humans deal with such issues and provide both a greater understanding of such events as well as potential remedies. This class is organized around a series of lectures by distinguished scholars which will help us better understand crises as well as aid us in developing solutions to ameliorate the causes and conditions surrounding crises of various kinds. Moreover, these lectures will clearly demonstrate that cultural anthropology, archaeology and physical anthropology as well, of course, as anthropology in general, can help us achieve these goals.

Crises are axial events because, as Eric Wolf (1990) has argued, “the arrangement of societies are most visible when they are challenged by crisis.” Crises, also offer the social scientist a fine opportunity to study the social and cultural construction of reality. Crises are ubiquitous through time and space and found in many different forms. Some examples of crises, among others, include:

September 18
(T) McClung Museum 63 ANTH 357/450
“ The Transnational Dilemmas of Eritrean Refugees in Germany and the United States”
Tricia Redeker-Hepner, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee

September 22
(M) Hodges Library Auditorium ANTH 550
“Casework, Disaster Operations, and Research at New York City’s Office of Medical Examiner”
Bradley Adams, New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner

September 23
(T) McClung Museum 63 ANTH 357/450
“The Role of Forensic Anthropology at NYC’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner”
Bradley Adams, New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner

September 25
(TH) McClung Museum 63 ANTH 357/450
“To Welcome or Not to Welcome, That is the Question: Immigrant Rights and Community Organizing in Tennessee”
De Ann Pendry, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee

October 2
(TH) McClung Museum 63 ANTH 357/450
“The David Witherspoon Properties: Nuclear and Chemical Waste in South Knoxville and What Has Been Done”
John Nolt, Philosophy Department, University of Tennesse

October 6
(M) Hodges Library Auditorium ANTH 550
“Mass Disasters: Balancing the Requirements of Forensic Science and the Needs of Family Members”
Paul Sledzik, National Transportation and Safety Board Office of Disaster Assistance

November 3
(M) Hodges Library Auditorium ANTH 550
“In Ancient Times You Were Like the Grasses in the Field and Like the Sands of the Sea:
Native Communities Recovering from Demographic Disaster in Colonial Mexico”
Judith Zeitlin, University of Massachusetts, Boston

November 13
(TH) McClung Museum 63 ANTH 357/450
“Mass Labor Migration and the Rule of Law in the United States of America: New Chapters in the Shadowy Jurisprudence of Race.”
Fran Ansley, Professor Emeritus, College of Law, University of Tennessee